NYC Garment Industry
For decades, New York City's most important industry has been garment manufacturing. Traditionally, it had been a major source of entry level jobs for recent immigrants to...
Dominance of Special Interests Dashes NYC Hopes for Recovery
How well is New York City doing now? Is it really on the way to recovery? Since the landmark report by the Temporary Commission on City Finances was released over a year ago, very little...
450 Miles of Rail Line Mapped in Nine Months
Working under one of the largest single contracts for survey services ever awarded, two Washington, D.C. survey companies lead a group of thirteen land and aerial survey firms in mapping...
Kamburu Dam: Diversion Conduit Designed into Spillway Saves $1,000,000
Careful coordination of dam construction operation with river stages over several seasons, and a construction sequence that called for building the spillway, in effect, from the top down,...
Concrete Bridge-Tunnel Has No Deck
Engineers solve the problem of how to economically span a single track railroad without interrupting train traffic. Highway fill was placed over post-tensioned precast concrete arch sections...
Automated Hydrography for Channel Dredging
After studying both non-line of sight and microwave systems of over-water distance measurement, one of the latter was selected for checking dredged channel depth on the Delaware River....
Doing Business in Saudi Arabia
The consulting firm or contractor eager to get a piece of the action in Saudi Arabia must be prepared to endure some hardships. Foreigners can't own land but can rent living...
Our Grand Erie Canal: A Splendid Project, A Little Short of Madness
As the first major water project in the United States, the old Erie Canal had major consequences on the economy and on civil engineering. Built in 1817-1825 to take advantage of the lowest...
Railroads, Truss Bridges and the Rise of the Civil Engineer
The huge growth of the railroads during the nineteenth century was the direct result of herculean efforts on the part of civil engineers. Likewise, the development of the civil engineering...
James B. Eads and His St. Louis Bridge
Eads Bridge at St. Louis, a century old engineering achievement, was designed, promoted, and built by an intensely dedicated and self-educated man, James B. Eads. This structure was an...
Philadelphia Bridge Sparked Growth of Prestressed Concrete in the U.S.
Prestressing has been used for centuries. For instance, iron bands were heat-shrunk over built-up wooden wheels to increase their resistance to damage. In 1888, a man named Jackson from...
The Story of America's Transportation Revolution
During the 200 years since the Declaration of Independence, the United States witnessed a revolution in transportation unprecedented in recorded history. For hundreds of years, man had...
Philadelphia-three ages of a city
On these pages are the profiles of the City of Brotherly Love in three eras. First come the founding years, and the story of why, though only half as old as Boston and New York, by 1750...
Automatic Surveying � Updating Canada's Control
With Litton's
World's Third Longest Cantilever Bridge
This report includes the planning, design and construction procedure of the world's third longest double deck, cantilever bridge, Osaka Port Bridge, which was completed in...
Supertanker Fixed Berth in Open Ocean
The oil terminal offshore Tomakomai, Japan, is the world's first fixed dock in open ocean. It must withstand 150 mph typhoon winds. To minimize time, cost and danger of open...
Can a Computer Reduce Your Spec Writing Costs�
The most important factors in evaluating use of a computer to write specifications are: the frequency with which a spec section is repeated; and the changes needed to go from master spec...
Birth of the Skyscraper
Before invention of the elevator, six stories was the practical limit to the height of a commercial building. Following the Chicago fire of 1871, building designers there were quick to...
Empire State: Greatest of All Skyscrapers
The Empire State Building! That major name instantly brings to mind Manhattan's intoxicating skyline, a skyline this greatest of all skyscrapers has dominated for 45 years....
The Story of America's Transportation Revolution
During the 200 years since the Declaration of Independence, the United States witnessed a revolution in transportation unprecedented in recorded history. For hundreds of years, man had...
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